SAMMA Systems to unveil tape rating system for migration process

SAMMA Systems is taking media migration to the next level
with the introduction of significant enhancements to its award-winning product
range at NAB 2008.
SAMMA Systems will launch
a unique tape media rating technology that adds another measure of efficiency
and cost-saving automation to the migration process, and the addition of
support for digital videotape formats enabling digitization to move beyond
analog inventories.
“SAMMA Systems is dedicated to saving the world’s tape archives,”
states Mark Gray, SAMMA Systems president. “So much of history is recorded on
videotape that can’t be shared because of the high cost and complexity of the
digitizing process. We are finding ways every day to achieve this daunting task
with less expense and difficulty. “
Building on the success of the SAMMA Analysis Engine, SAMMA
Systems will demonstrate a groundbreaking and unique technology that will
automatically rate the physical condition of tapes during the initial stage of
the migration process. “The quality of tapes that have existed for up to 50+
years in questionable environments is a big factor when encoding preparations
are underway,” commented Gray. “This new sensor feedback system gives immediate
feedback to the tape cleaning operator thus slashing time and increasing
efficiency.
Guess work is eliminated and
the human error factor is removed.”
The rating system, a first of its kind in the world, will be
added to the Company’s SAMMA Eye software. It will automatically assign a
rating to the tape’s condition as it travels through SAMMA Systems Tape
Cleaner. Physical deterioration is the key reason why old tapes fail to play.
This new software allows the SAMMA Cleaner to provide a quantitative rating on
the physical qualities of the tape which can then become a basis for further action.
i.e. advancing the tape to migration or recleaning.

Already accomplished in the migration of analog material to
the digital domain, SAMMA Systems is expanding to support SDI signals as well.
“In addition to the 50+ years of accumulated analog tape there is an enormous
inventory of digital recordings dating back 25+ years that needs to be
addressed. We now have the capabilities of ingesting this material completely
in the digital domain,” stated Gray.
With SAMMA’s products now supporting SDI inputs, D1, D2, D3,
D5, IMX, DV family, Betacam SX and Digital Betacam can now be migrated to
multiple digital files such as JPEG 2000, MPEG 2, H.264 and Windows Media in a
single pass of the tape. The new addition also facilitates conversion of JPEG
2000 files to MPEG-2 and Windows Media files for use in production and viewing
applications.